Conestoga's Elisabeth Ingersoll (21) runs the ball past Southern Lehigh's Kiki Kidd (11). The Southern Lehigh girls lacrosse team played Conestoga at Nazareth High School's Andrew S. Leh Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. Conestoga won with a final score of 16-8.

Conestoga's Elisabeth Ingersoll (21) runs the ball past Southern Lehigh's Kiki Kidd (11). The Southern Lehigh girls lacrosse team played Conestoga at Nazareth High School's Andrew S. Leh Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. Conestoga won with a final score of 16-8.

(EMILY PAINE / THE MORNING CALL)

Of The Morning Call

Are the Spartans still perfect in girls lacrosse?

In the midst of a perfect season, Southern Lehigh coach Jen Shields realized her team needed to play that way to have a chance to extend it beyond Wednesday's PIAA first-round girls lacrosse tournament game with Conestoga.

But the Pioneers, who were atop the state rankings for the most of the season, never let the Spartans get started.

Conestoga scored six of the game's first seven goals and coasted to a 16-8 victory at Nazareth, Solehi's first setback after 20 straight wins.

"We needed everything to go right," Shields said. "And they took that away from us."

The loss keeps District 11 winless in the PIAA tournament's seven-year history.

The night didn't end well for a District 11 boys team either. Central Bucks East (19-4) held Emmaus scoreless for nearly 27 minutes and limited to Green Hornets (14-8) to one shot over the first 18 minutes of the second half, pulling away to an 11-5 win in a first-round game.

(Emily Paine)

•Shields had hoped her team would be able to control its share of draws against a team that was seeded first in the powerful District One tournament. However, Conestoga (21-3), the district's fourth-seed after one-goal losses in the semifinals and consolation game, controlled nine of the 11 in the first half, helping the Pioneers outshoot the Spartans 13-5 and open a 7-3 halftime lead.

"It was a combination obviously of their skill and talent and our nerves," said Shields, who has five seniors (Elise Ashford, Audrey Clarke, Kiki Kidd, Mackenzie Koziel and Lizzy Lievendag) on the roster.

(Emily Paine)

Solehi played a deliberate style when it did get possession, but it failed to convert those possessions into goals.

"It was all about controlling the pace of play," Shields said. "We knew a little bit about this team's style and it was gun-and-go, and we couldn't get into a shootout with them. They have too much power. But we did think if we could control the pace we could hang in there."

Bridget Cerciello scored six of Southern Lehigh's eight goals, including all five in the second half. Her first goal after the break pulled the Spartans within 7-4, but Conestoga ran off seven straight to take a 14-4 lead with 7:47 left.

"We haven't seen an offense or a defense like that … are you kidding me?" Shields said with a laugh. "It was a great learning lesson, and I'm proud of the girls. This game doesn't take away from what we've done this year at all, and it's still a very young squad."

•Emmaus took a 3-2 lead with 8:18 left in the first half on Patrick Camilli's breakaway goal off a Matt Horton save, but the Hornets didn't score again until Colin Mason set up Camilli with 5:23 left. By that time the Patriots had scored six straight goals, building an 8-3 lead.

"We had opportunities all first half to get seven or eight goals, and we didn't execute," said Emmaus coach Scott Ketcham, whose team lost in the opening round for the third straight season. "We finally got off to the start that we kind of needed and then we faded out."

Horton was spectacular in keeping Emmaus in front in the first half, recording nine saves on East's 18 first-half shots. He added seven more saves in the third quarter when East peppered 17 shots at the Emmaus net while scoring four times.

"We had four failed clears in the third quarter; they held the ball for 11 minutes out of 12 in the third quarter, and that was the game," Ketcham said. "We played too much defense and they finally wore our guys down."

Ketcham said pressure teams have gotten to Emmaus all year long, and Wednesday the Hornets committed 10 turnovers in the middle two quarters and 16 overall in the game.

"Our offense didn't value the ball," Ketcham said. "We worked on pressure all week, but in pressure situations when the lights are on … some of our younger guys have to really learn in the next 10 months that pressure is the name of the game, because every single team is going to come out swinging, thinking they can pressure us and push us around.

"It wasn't anything that they did; it was pretty much everything we didn't do. And that's the frustrating part," he added. "These kids fought tonight; it wasn't for a lack of effort. But when they get into pressure situations, some of the younger guys go back to their bad habits, and we've got to stop doing that."

C.B. East finished with a whopping 41-19 advantage in shots and controlled 14 of the 20 face-offs.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow, because we had them on the ropes and we knew we can play with them," Ketcham said. "We just let them off with some poor fundamentals … we have to get back to work and fix that."

"Those seniors have a lot of pride, and you have to remember this is a class that has a guy like Charles Kelly, who's an Underarmour All-American, decide to go to Malvern Prep. Also a kid like Matt Schleicher, who left the [school] district to go to Conestoga," Ketcham said. "Those seniors are about the gutsiest group we've ever had. But we've got a lot of young kids and we're going to fight like heck to get back here next year and get over the top."